Blue state lawmakers are waging a preemptive strike against an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision that could decimate the power of public-sector unions across the nation.
New York and New Jersey officials are pursuing an end-run around Janus v. AFSCME, a case that could give government workers across all states the option of declining to pay union fees even if they benefit from that union‘s contract negotiations.
The play by these states is pretty simple: Beef up public-employee union’s ability to recruit and retain members in an effort to counteract the chunk of revenue loss these unions expect. New York passed a provision in NY A9509 (17R) that makes it harder for people to opt out of paying union dues by letting unions set the terms for refusals and allows union representatives to recruit new employees during the workday. New Jersey just enacted a similar measure through legislation.
At a time when half of all states have enacted right-to-work laws, New York and New Jersey are clear outliers trying to preserve, rather than cripple, union power.
“The federal government is anti-union, they’ve made that clear,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
